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R/V Kilo Moana > Current Cruise

Current Cruise__________

The R/V Kilo Moana is currently headed towards Alaska to begin a summer in the northern Pacific. To see the 2003 schedule of the Kilo Moana, please see the UNOLS site.

Arrival of Kilo Moana in Honolulu

More images of the R/V Kilo Moana at sea off Jacksonville, Florida

(Click on an image to see the larger version)

September 10th, 2002- Blessing of the R/V Kilo Moana at Aloha Tower

   

 

September 3, 2002- Kilo Moana Arrives in Honolulu!

 

August 22, 2002

Quick note (and data images) from Bruce Appelgate and Paul Johnson, currently on R/V Kilo Moana

Greetings from 17N/107W,

Paul Johnson just finished processing the EM120 data from the EPR, where we were surveying while this tropical depression passed us by. We've made a plan-view map in GMT, plus some 3D images using a crazy combination of software packages. Some ancillary info: Data were collected while Kilo Moana was speeding along at 11 to 12 knots through the water. The swath width was consistently 150 degrees, which in these water depths translates to up to 19 km in some places. At this swath width, our rep rate is about 20 seconds. As an aside, we're currently travelling at 13.5 knots through the water (up to 17.6 speed over ground) as this storm pushes us along, and we're still getting a 150-degree swath width.

Plan-view map of East Pacific Rise (EPR)
3-D image of East Pacific Rise
3-D image of East Pacific Rise
3-D image of East Pacific Rise

 

August 15, 2002

Stay tuned for more images from the ship (Click on any image to see a larger version)

 

August 12, 2002

R/V Kilo Moana travels through the Panama Canal!

 

August 9, 2002

by Bruce Appelgate, currently on the R/V Kilo Moana

This morning at about 2AM we finished our last line at Cayman Trough, and turned the ship south towards the Panama Canal. We're currently located at 15d04m north, 78d35m west, and have about 28 hours to go before reaching Colon on the Caribbean side of Panama. We hit our first weather to speak of last night, with an impressive thunderstorm blowing up around us, with a fantastic lightning show. Winds increased to better than 20 knots and the seas blew up, and its nice to finally see how this ship rides when its not flat glassy calm (as it has been the entire trip until today). The news is good: the ship has a funky side-to-side shimmy, but it does very little pitching or rolling. We've left the storm behind, and are now sailing through 20-knot trade winds and sunny skies. Today was another busy day of sonar maintenance and software training, computer system setup, setting up the computer lab. We had to leave a lot of projects unfinished while we were concentrating on our multibeam trials, but now that that's over we can get back to the job of getting the labs organized. We continue to collect multibeam data during the transit, however.

August 8, 2002

by Bruce Appelgate, currently on the R/V Kilo Moana

Its been another busy and productive day. The early hours were spent surveying the axis of the Cayman Trough with our EM120 swath multibeam sonar. We've spent weeks testing this sonar (along with the shallow water multibeam, the EM1002), and the Cayman Trough (CT) survey is the first attempt to use the sonar to map cool geological features. CT is a transform fault that marks the plate boundary between the Caribbean and North American plates, and exhibits relief from 0 to 7100 meters. It was a great test of the multibeam, and our system did an outstanding job, with swath coverage up to 150 degrees (swath widths up to 21 kilometers wide).

This afternoon we broke our survey and headed for Grand Cayman to drop off about a dozen engineers, technicians and observers who have participated in the first two legs of our trip. We heaved to in the harbor and watched the cruise ships pull out for an hour until the small boat came to carry our folks ashore. That done, we headed south again to add one more line to the southern edge of our Cayman Trough survey. Fifteen minutes ago we finished that, turned south, and are headed for Panama. During our transit we'll continue to keep the multibeam running, fulfilling one of the objectives of Kilo Moana: collect data all day, every day. In addition to the mapping, we'll continue our training routine on hardware and software related to the multibeam systems (there are still two instructors from Simrad, the sonar manufacturer, on board until Panama). Our colleagues from the Shipboard Technical Assistance Group (STAG) will continue to install, test, configure, and document shipboard scientific equipment. This is a huge job that will have STAG guys working 16 hour days clear up until Honolulu. They've done a great job so far.

July 25, 2002

Route of R/V Kilo Moana

The R/V Kilo Moana leaves Jacksonville, Florida en route to Honolulu. Before it can start its voyage home, it must undergo some trials off Florida's coast.

Here is a photo of the R/V Kilo Moana as it begins trials.

Kilo Moana at sea

 

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Last updated 02/12/2003 14:26